THE NEW HIGHER EDUCATION ASSESSMENT AND ACCREDITATION SYSTEM: IMPACT, EFFECTS AND BENEFITS

Abstract

The creation of a quality assurance system capable of international recognition is among the designs of the recent approval of the higher education legal system of evaluation. With this scheme, the Government intends to establish parameters for assessing quality, which include education, the qualifications of the faculty, the strategy adopted to ensure the quality of education, the scientific, technological and artistic activity, appropriated to the mission of the institution and international cooperation. The adoption of these measures aimed at achieving improved quality of higher education institutions, to provide information to the company founded on the performance of institutions, as well as the development of an internal institutional culture of quality assurance. This evaluation is mandatory and takes place in the European system of quality assurance in higher education. The agent of such assessment are the self-assessment, which is performed by each institution of higher education, and the external assessment, serving as basis for the process of accreditation, which is performed by the assessment and accreditation agency to assure the quality in higher education. The Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education was legally established in November 2007. The accreditation of higher education institutions and their courses is mandatory and can be an initiative of the Agency or of the higher education institutions themselves, which show interest. It is proposed in this paper to present develop the recent challenges faced by higher education institutions, giving special focus to the stage where the implementation of those government’s measures are.